Elderly Eteri Gogaladze lovingly chills her husband. He wipes his eyes moist with tears with his palms. “Why did he bring me here from the village of Brolasan. Now I'm afraid for him, not for myself. I’m Georgian, maybe they won’t touch me, but I’m worried about Yura. They have lived here all their lives. And now it became restless in our quiet village. On the one hand, Georgians stand day and night, and on the other hand, Ossetians go armed. I feel sorry for them. Yesterday I made pita bread, there are pickles, cheese. I think that suddenly, they will be hungry, I will treat them,” says Eteri.
The well-groomed house, the weathered beds of the rural house of Jura Tedeev is like an oasis, among the bare walls of the collapsed neighboring houses, peering through the thick green trees. Around - not a soul. Only silent green mountains and South Ossetian military men walking in paths in camouflage.
Eteri and Jura have lived soul to soul for 45 years. She is Georgian, he is Ossetian. But, as the woman says, "then this was not like that." Only the aggravation of the political situation makes Eteri grumble in her heart at her husband. It would remain, they say, in her Georgian ancestral village Brolasan and marry a Georgian, and she would not know the heart of her feelings for her husband.
“I would get up and leave, but where will I get the cow.” She recently hotels. If it weren’t for the livestock, they probably would have left, "Eteri grumbles. But, a good vineyard, orchard, and beds of vegetables say that the old people will not leave anywhere. Yes, and nowhere. They buried their son He was killed by Georgians in the 90s.A divorced daughter with children huddles in a one-room apartment in Tskhinval.
“In the summer I saw my grandchildren only once, but never came back. Fear. The situation around is not simple. We ourselves live here alone. Neighbors in the village are scattered, several families. Once a week, the scheduled UAZ arrives and takes us to the district center. We stock up on food there and come back on it, "says Eteri.
While the woman shares a simple way of life, her husband Yura calls the journalists his capital namesakes, trying to establish mutual friends.
Accompanied by border guards, journalists visiting the area. In the woods flicker figures in uniform. They patrol the border. They will be replaced at night.
Border guards forbid taking their faces off. Although the Georgian "copter" periodically buzzes overhead and conducts filming. In the vicinity of the village of Tsnelis, several border guards are on duty. They communicate with each other in beautiful call signs on the radio. To better see the Georgian checkpoint, journalists are making a difficult journey to one of the heights. And in order not to slip into the blurry rain of the path, it is necessary, cleverly sorting through the rope tied to the trees, to make our way up through the thorny bushes.
Clinging to the sharp corners of mountain stones with sneakers, journalists and border guards go to a small mountain meadow.
From here everything is in full view. From the cliff you can see a winding road leading to Tskhinval from Usta (Tsnelis), on the other hand - the ruins of the once famous and profitable Yugostalk plant. A Georgian post is visible right above the factory. A few days ago there were only screeners of sandbags. Now they have turned wider: the walls of the boards sewn together are in an open square. Left only the viewing window. The red barrel on that side is visible even to us through the gorge. There are boilers, bags of coal near the barrel. All this is easily visible when approaching the camcorder or through binoculars. Seeing on the opposite side of the landing of journalists, they stirred at the checkpoint. The viewing window was occupied by a mask with binoculars, several figures in black uniforms were actively moving. International observers in blue T-shirts, with badges hanging around their necks, went down into the forest and were looking for a convenient position for their observations. Ten minutes later, at a Georgian checkpoint, journalists with microphones and video cameras grow like mushrooms. Among the forest thickets above the checkpoint, armed people in black are clearly visible. Either they deliberately entered the viewing area - show off in front of us, or it seems to them that they are not visible.
On the way back we look at the border guard camp. They are temporarily located in an abandoned building at the rural medical post. A couple of rooms equipped for the night. These are extreme conditions for several days. Equipped border post - not far from the village of Uista, in the village of Znaur.
At the gate of the first-aid post in the sun, pea-jackets damp from the night rain hang. Local paramedics provided a first-aid post for the convenience of border guards. Here they get hot tea. Some caught a cold last night.
“The doors of the first-aid post are open to them. Here they charge the phones. We treat them to tea,” the paramedic says.
The border guards are in a good mood. A booming echo of soldier laughter is heard from the empty temporary-based building. They will replace their comrades in the posts at night.
At the entrance to the village, a post of Russian border guards was also put up. There are barriers with the sign “Stop”. Outsiders will not enter the village.
The situation with the setting up of an illegal checkpoint for the third time will be discussed at a technical meeting of the IPRM scheduled for next Monday, September 2.
